LNG

Woodside Energy, the Australian LNG plants operator with overseas assets in the US and Senegal, and UK major Shell are moving forward with separate oil and gas project, the Trion joint venture for Woodside and Shell’s Sparta deep-water development located in the Mexican and US portions of the Gulf of Mexico.

Woodside said it awarded a major contract to Mexican company Eseasa Offshore SA to supply shore base facilities and services for Woodside’s operations supporting the Trion oil and gas project offshore Mexico.

Woodside operates the Gulf of Mexico field, located in a water depth of 8,202 feet (2,500 metres), with a 60 percent stake while state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) holds the remaining 40 percent of the field discovered in 2012.

Support role

“The Mexican owned and operated company demonstrates the great capacity available in-country to support a world-class oil and gas project like Trion,” said Woodside Vice President for Trion Stephane Drouaud.

“It also reinforces Woodside’s commitment to investing locally and ensuring that the economic benefits of our investment in Trion are felt as broadly as possible across Mexican suppliers,” Drouaud stated.

“Eseasa will provide a broad range of services out of its shore base location on the Panuco River coastline The award of the contract is critical as we continue to progress the Trion project toward first oil in 2028,” he added.

Eseasa’s scope of includes shore base infrastructure, operations planning and management for vessel mooring, loading and discharge and freight and material management and dedicated laydown and staging areas.

Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of London-headquartered Shell plc, said a final investment decision has been made the for Sparta field, a deep-water development in the US Gulf of Mexico that represents a “competitive approach” for Shell to simplifying and replicating projects.

Shell and Equinor

Shell Offshore owns 51 percent of Sparta and is the operator and Norway’s Equinor owns the remaining 49 percent.

Sparta is expected to reach a peak production of around 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and currently has an estimated discovered recoverable resource volume of 244 million boe.

Sparta will be Shell’s 15th deep-water host in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently scheduled to begin production in 2028.

“Shell’s latest deep-water development demonstrates the power of replication, driving greater value from our advantaged positions,” said Zoë Yujnovich, Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director.

“This investment decision is aligned with our commitment to pursue the most energy-efficient and competitive projects while supplying safe, secure energy supplies today and for decades to come,” she added.

Shell explained that Sparta was building on more than 40 years of deep-water expertise and marks Shell’s first development in the Gulf of Mexico to produce from reservoirs with pressures up to 20,000 pounds per square inch.

The Sparta development spans four Outer Continental Shelf blocks in the Garden Banks area of the US Gulf.

“Sparta will feature a semi-submersible production host in a depth of more than 1,400m/4,700ft of water, initially with eight oil and gas producing wells,” Shell said.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the Northwest Shelf and Pluto LNG export plants in Western Australia, is widening its oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico by moving forward with a joint venture costing more than US$7-billion in partnership with Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the state-owned energy company.

New Fortress Energy Inc., the US LNG project developer, has completed its agreements with Mexico’s state-owned energy company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to develop and operate an integrated upstream and natural gas liquefaction project off the coast of Veracruz in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

New Fortress Energy Inc., the expanding LNG terminals, production, shipping and power assets owner, plans to hold a floating LNG investor day at the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard near Corpus Christi in Texas.

New Fortress has chosen the energy subsidiary of Omaha, Nebraska-based construction giant Kiewit as its partner for the building of FLNG units on the US Gulf Coast and the presentation event will be held from 10:00 am Central Time on November 22.

“Specializing in the fabrication and integration of offshore projects, the 555-acre KOS facility is home to NFE’s ‘Fast LNG’ program and the ongoing conversion of marine infrastructure into floating liquefaction units,” explained NFE in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wes Edens, Chairman and Chief Executive of NFE, said he looked forward to hosting the event at the Texas facility.

“We expect to achieve mechanical completion of our first FLNG unit in March 2023 and deploy FLNG 1 into operation by mid-year, with additional units to follow soon thereafter,” explained Edens.

Skilled workforce

“Utilizing a highly skilled workforce on the US Gulf Coast, we have developed an efficient and repeatable construction process - essentially an FLNG factory - that substantially reduces the cost and time to build incremental liquefaction capacity to meet the urgent needs of the global energy markets,” declared the NFE CEO.

New York-based NFE also recently signed an agreement with Mexico’s national energy company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to form a strategic partnership including a floating LNG project in the Gulf of Mexico.

The agreement involves the joint development of the Lakach deepwater natural gas field for Pemex to supply natural gas to Mexico’s onshore domestic market and for NFE to produce LNG for export to global markets.

The US company will produce the LNG using its “Fast LNG” vessels to be built at the Kiewit yard.

NFE’s “Fast LNG” pairs modular, midsize liquefaction technology with jack-up rigs or similar floating infrastructure to enable a lower cost and faster deployment schedules.

Louisiana FLNG

The US company is additionally involved in other FLNG ventures, including one offshore the US Gulf state of Louisiana and another offshore the Republic of Congo in West Africa.

NFE is additionally advancing LNG-for-power projects in nations like Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil as well as in the Caribbean.

NFE also said recently that it had entered a joint venture valued at $2 billion with New York-based asset management firm Apollo relating to floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) in the LNG sector and this opened up a long-term financing arrangement.

The July 2022 deal involves NFE selling LNG infrastructure vessels it owns to the newly formed joint company whereby 80 percent would be held by Apollo funds and 20 percent by NFE.

That transaction would create a global marine infrastructure platform underpinned by long-term contracts, benefitting from NFE's LNG downstream operations and development activities, as well as Apollo's leading investment and maritime experience.

LNG FSRUs

Outwith the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard plans NFE has an existing fleet that came from its acquisition in 2021 of Golar LNG Partners and its assorted FSRUs and LNG carriers.

The 11-vessel portfolio of the venture consists of six FSRUs, two conventional LNG carriers and three floating storage units (FSUs).

As part of the Apollo transaction, NFE has agreed to charter 10 of the 11 of the vessels from the Apollo-controlled venture for a period of up to 20 years.

Apollo is a high-growth, global alternative asset management business focusing on select investment strategies.

New Fortress Energy Inc, the expanding LNG terminals, production, shipping and power assets owner, has entered a joint venture valued at $2 billion with New York-based asset management firm Apollo relating to floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) in the LNG sector and opening up a long-term financing arrangement.

New Fortress signed the deal to sell LNG infrastructure vessels it owns to the newly formed joint company whereby 80 percent would be held by Apollo funds and 20 percent by NFE.

“This transaction will create a global marine infrastructure platform underpinned by long-term contracts, benefitting from NFE's LNG downstream operations and development activities, as well as Apollo's leading investment and maritime experience,” said a joint statement.

NFE’s existing fleet came from its acquisition in 2021 of Golar LNG Partners and its assorted FSRUs and LNG carriers.

“The platform provides critical infrastructure for the delivery, storage, and regasification of LNG to power countries around the world, which can reduce their reliance on oil and coal to lower carbon emissions,” it added.

The 11-vessel portfolio of the venture consists of six FSRUs, two conventional LNG carriers and three floating storage units (FSUs).

Charters

“The total implied enterprise value of the transaction is about $2Bln and NFE will receive around $1.1Bln in proceeds after accounting for NFE's share of the venture and paydown of existing debt,” the companies explained.

As part of the transaction, NFE has agreed to charter 10 of the 11 of the vessels from the Apollo-controlled venture for a period of up to 20 years commencing either upon close of the transaction or upon expiration of the existing third-party charter agreements of the vessels.

The venture will also seek “growth opportunities” in support of both NFE and third parties to support the energy transition and bolster energy security globally.

Apollo is a high-growth, global alternative asset management business focusing on select investment strategies.

“Together with Apollo, we are creating a leading LNG marine infrastructure platform to help accelerate the energy transition while freeing up capital to continue to invest into our ‘Fast LNG’ and downstream LNG projects worldwide,” declared Wes Edens. Chairman and Chief Executive of NFE.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Apollo in creating a maritime infrastructure company that will help support NFE's growing LNG infrastructure needs going forward,” he added.

Apollo Partner Brad Fierstein said he was pleased to help further the initiatives of NFE in the LNG business through long-term investment.

“This is a high-quality portfolio that increases energy security around the world, accelerates decarbonization efforts, and facilitates LNG use which is cleaner and more affordable than diesel,” stated Fierstein.

NFE and Apollo said they expected to transaction to be finalised in the third quarter of 2022.

“Transaction proceeds are expected to be utilized to fund NFE's FLNG projects. as well as for ongoing downstream infrastructure and general corporate purposes,” the statement added.

Pemex deal

NFE recently signed an agreement with Mexico’s national energy company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to form a strategic partnership including a floating LNG project in the Gulf of Mexico.

The agreement involves the joint development of the Lakach deepwater natural gas field for Pemex to supply natural gas to Mexico’s onshore domestic market and for NFE to produce LNG for export to global markets.

The US company will produce the LNG using its own “Fast LNG” design offshore.

NFE’s “Fast LNG” pairs modular, midsize liquefaction technology with jack-up rigs or similar floating infrastructure to enable a much lower cost and faster deployment schedule than floating liquefaction vessels.

The US company is additionally involved in other FLNG ventures, including one offshore the US Gulf state of Louisiana and another offshore the Republic of Congo in West Africa.

NFE is also advancing LNG-for-power projects in nations like Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil as well as in the Caribbean and in Sri Lanka in Asia. 

New Fortress Energy Inc, the expanding LNG terminals, production, shipping and power assets owner has signed an agreement with Mexico’s national energy company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to form a strategic partnership including a floating LNG project in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Mexican oil and gas company, is currently struggling to emerge from the economic slowdown amid widening losses at a time when several LNG export projects are moving forward in the country.

Mexico, a future LNG exporter to Asia with three plants being developed on the Pacific Coast, has revealed plans that are a hidden part of the future energy policies of many resource-rich nations that it will stop exporting oil in 2023 and keep the oil for itself to guarantee fuel supplies.

Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Mexican oil and gas company, is currently struggling to emerge from the economic slowdown amid widening losses and tumbling revenues at a time when several LNG export projects are moving forward in the country.

Mexican state oil and gas company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) narrowed losses to the equivalent of $2 billion in the second quarter as US pipeline natural gas and LNG imports helped keep power sources at peak capacity. The losses were an improvement on the huge 562 billion pesos ($25Bln) loss registered in the previous quarter for foreign exchange reasons and the collapse of oil prices.